Free Republic

The struggle to prove the majestic bird still exists has obsessed believers and exasperated doubters for a century. Now photographer Bobby Harrison is racing to document the species once and for all before the government declares it extinct The bird has many names, often divinely inspired: the Lord God Bird, the Lazarus Bird, the Ghost Bird, the Grail Bird. Bobby Harrison is a religious man, but he doesn’t like any of them. He prefers to call it what it is: an ivory-billed woodpecker. “Well,” he says with a shrug, “it is just a bird, after all.” That might seem like...

That rapidly growing wind power development kills birds in ever increasing numbers is clear. That it also kills whales and other marine mammals is becoming clear. So the policy question is how much killing is enough, before we stop killing more? This question seems not to be asked. The stampede to build huge amounts of wind power, on land and at sea, is potentially devastating to a great many species. Our focus has been on the growing threat to whales and other marine mammals from offshore industrial wind. But this is just part of a much deeper pattern of runaway...

Following massive progress on the Woolly Mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, Colossal launches Avian Genomics Group to continue groundbreaking de-extinction pursuits Dr. Beth Shapiro, Ph.D. (Lead Paleogeneticist and Colossal Scientific Advisory Board Member) and Ben Lamm (Colossal Co-Founder and CEO). Image courtesy of Colossal Biosciences. ********************************************************** DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company, has today announced an oversubscribed $150M Series B financing led by United States Innovative Technology Fund (“USIT”), with participation from Breyer Capital, WestRiver Group, Bob Nelsen, Animal Capital, Victor Vescovo, In-Q-Tel, Animoca Brands, Peak 6, BOLD Capital, and Jazz Ventures, among others. Since launching in September 2021,...

A highly infectious and deadly strain of avian influenza virus has infected tens of millions of poultry birds across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. But scientists are particularly concerned about the unprecedented spread in wild birds — outbreaks pose a significant risk to vulnerable species, are hard to contain and increase the opportunity for the virus to spill over into people. Since October, the H5N1 strain has caused nearly 3,000 outbreaks in poultry in dozens of countries. More than 77 million birds have been culled to curb the spread of the virus, which almost always causes severe disease or...

A Pennsylvania family's pet cockatiel was identified after three years on the loose thanks to the bird's love for a classic TV theme song. Louise Duncan said she knew the bird she found on the front porch of Christ United Methodist Church in Lancaster County was not a native species. "I knew it was not a normal bird that comes by because it had an orange or yellow plume," Duncan told WGAL-TV. Duncan and Pastor Roseann Goldberg-Taylor wrangled the bird into a box and contacted local animal rescue group ORCA. ORCA posted photos of the bird on Facebook, and soon...

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday received an unwelcomed surprise in Iowa when a bird appeared to poop on his suit as he delivered his speech on inflation and the state of the American economy. According to a viral video on social media, Mr Biden was unveiling plans to trim gas prices and “putting rural America at the centre of our efforts to build a future that's made in America” when a white substance fell on his jacket - right above his American flag pin. “It's about being made in America,” the US President said moments prior to the poop...

WATCH: Bird poops on Joe Biden during speech.

Companies like Bird and Lime allow able-bodied people to unlock a set of wheels with their smartphones. In cities around the country, you’ll see millennials scooting through town at speeds of up to 15 mph on their scooter rental. Riders pay $1 to start, then 15 cents per minute to ride—a small price to pay for convenient short-distance transportation. Because the scooters are dockless, riders abandon them as soon as they reach their destination. These next-gen “Bird droppings” litter America’s sidewalks and frequently block wheelchair users’ independence and freedom of movement.

Today, being "birdbrained" means forgetting where you left your keys or wallet. But 66 million years ago, it may have meant the difference between life and death—and may help explain why birds are the only dinosaurs left on Earth. Research on a newly discovered bird fossil led by The University of Texas at Austin found that a unique brain shape may be why the ancestors of living birds survived the mass extinction that claimed all other known dinosaurs. "Living birds have brains more complex than any known animals except mammals," said lead investigator Christopher Torres, who conducted the research while...

Got a bird feeder? Take it down.That’s the advice of the Audubon Society, the PA Game Commission, the Wildlife Futures Program (WFP) at The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (SCEE). And if you think their recommendations are for the birds, you’re right.A mysterious illness has been ravaging songbird populations in the eastern United States. Thousands of afflicted birds have been manifesting crusty discharge from swollen eyes and signs of neurologic impairment (erratic flight, trouble walking, tremors). Rehabbers are helpless; the prognosis is death.First observed in the DC area in May and...

The man helped himself to a shower and a pair of Sabz’s shorts. The owner of the home confronted the man who kept claiming the house was his and telling Sabz he would call the police. He is seen in the home’s Ring camera footage calmly walking around, sitting on the couch and relaxing. The intruder also killed two of their beloved pet birds with his bare hands... Police acted quickly and arrested the intruder.

When it comes to the public’s perception of female basketball players versus their soccer counterparts, Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird believes she knows why support sways one way over the other. “To be blunt it’s the demographic of who’s playing. Women’s soccer players generally are cute little white girls while WNBA players, we’re all shapes and sizes: a lot of Black, gay, tall women. There’s maybe an intimidation factor and people are quick to judge it and put it down,” Bird told CNN in an interview Sunday.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A Pennsylvania woman says she realized there was a bird in her can of spinach when she noticed a yellow beak in a lump of greens. "I immediately felt like I was going to vomit," Cherie Lyons, of Chambersburg, told the York Daily Record. "I was sick for the next whole day." Lyons said she found the bird June 14 after pouring the spinach into a bowl. Lyons told the Daily Record she felt mistreated after calling Del Monte. She was offered a $10 check and a request for the bird to be sent back.

I hope everyone has been able to enjoy Spring migration, when it finally decided to become somewhat Spring-like. Lifer Golden-Winged Warbler American Redstart - male Bay-breasted Warbler Trumpeter Swan Blackburnian Warbler - male Eastern Screech-Owl - red-morph A week later Eastern Screech-Owl - grey morph in same cavity. Someone else photographed both in the hole together shortly after.

A bird that had previously gone extinct came back to life thanks to a rare evolutionary process known as "iterative evolution." The white-throated rail bird can presently be found on the island of Aldabra. Early fossils of the bird suggest it lived there thousands of years ago and died out because it could not fly to higher ground when rising sea levels threatened its safety. But thanks to "iterative evolution," which evolves similar body parts due to genetics from a similar ancestor, the bird came back from the dead. **SNIP** In order to make the determination that the extinct bird...

Tiny holes in the bones indicate that they passed through a large bird’s digestive system, according to Professor Pawel Valde-Nowak of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. It’s not clear, however, whether the bird attacked and ate the young Neanderthal or scavenged the remains of a dead child. Believed to be about 115,000 years old, the bones are the oldest human remains ever discovered in Poland. Experts from the Jagiellonian University and Washington University in St. Louis confirmed that the remains are digital bones from a child’s hand. The Archaeological Museum of Krakow and the Polish Academy of Sciences also participated...

It is believed to be a grass carp, a freshwater species found in many parts of Asia and America. But the reason for the creature's bizarre head-shape isn't known. Thankfully, the fisherman took pity on it and released the fish back into the water. It's far from the first bizarre creature to emerge from the water.

A cheep slut has come between a hawk and her hubby. For the last five years, two red-tailed hawks named Christo and Dora have ruled the roost at Tompkins Square Park, mating and raising 10 chicks together. But three months ago, Dora had to leave and go to rehab for an injured wing. And while hawks usually mate for life, an opportunistic bachelorette named Nora soon arrived and began flapping her feathers at Christo.

Published on Jul 18, 2017 Occurred on October 6, 2015 / Pedrinópolis, Brazil "One day we decided to record the animals because we like to see the friendship of the pitbull and the parrot. The dog's name is Perigo and the parrot is Cassio."

Portland literally “put a bird on it” at a Bernie Sanders rally in Oregon on Monday. A bird landed on the Democratic presidential candidate's podium during his speech, and the crowd went wild. “That bird really is a dove asking us for world peace,” Sanders said. The “put a bird on it” slogan was made famous by the sketch comedy show “Portlandia.”